cloudsoup

Helen’s keen on rust, dirt, decay, broken windows – you know the sort of thing:

Padlock, on one of Helen’s Flickr accounts

And then there’s this, looking like, ooh, a couple of Millet^* peasants, if I were to be a bit pretentious about it:

Jumblers

Her pro account is here.

I’m reluctant to admit it but I think her eye for composition is better than mine. Sometimes I’ll take the odd Ok photo but it usually happens by pointing the camera at a spectacular vista that couldn’t be messed up. For instance:

Yosemite with Fat Guy

And even then I’m not sure of the fat guy. Is he wistful, does his lone presence enhance the scene? Or does he remind you of a little escapee from a cartoon?

I’m looking forward to seeing what Helen will do with this

Nikon D80

being delivered shortly, for her birthday.

She’s currently using a Canon Powershot A620 for digital snaps, and it’s fine for what it is, but she has previously used a film SLR and she’s been humming and haahing over making the move to SLR digital for several years now. The D80′s halfway between an entry-level digital SLR and a semi-professional model like the Nikon D200 so it should serve her well while she’s relearning real photography (hyperfocal distance and circle of confusion, anyone?)

Then of course we’ll have to travel to some spectacular photographic location. We’ve been in the habit of taking a short break abroad a few months into the year and I’m wondering if Iceland or Norway would do.